You Will Want To Build This Canoe

There is something about a wooden boat that should be facsinating to most makers, the craftsmanship and level of work that goes into creating a sea-, lake-, or river-worthy craft with smooth lines, from little more than thin pieces of wood. Master boatbuilders have apprenticeships that last years, and spend entire careers refining their art.

[Adam], also known as [A Guy Doing Stuff], is not a master boatbuilder. In his words, he’s just a guy with some basic woodworking knowledge, who builds canoes from cedar strips. But you wouldn’t know that he has no training as a boatbuilder from looking at his work, which you can do because he’s posted some beauthiful videos.

We see the creation of a skeleton to produce the basic shape of the boat, followed by the creation of prow and stern. Then there is a painstaking application of carefully shaped cedar strips to make the hull, and a single layer of glass fibre on either side. With the gel coat applied though you wouldn’t know the fibre was there. Finally we have the creation of the seats and interior fittings, followed by the canoe being paddled across a lake.

Few of us may ever make a canoe. But if we did, we’d want it to be one like this one.

We went the other direction – we bought an inexpensive but sailable 28 year old sailboat, made the minimum fixes, and are trying to sail the bottom off of it. It still presents lots of opportunity for functional hacking.

But hey wouldn’t you first need a canoe to learn & practice with? I have to be damn sure most hackers aren’t experts with the tools & machines they purchase before they purchase them. At best and worst simultaneously. he is a hacker, give him a break.

Epoxy with wood and a layer of glass .= Strong .Very damage resistant. I think this is a wonderful build.Watch his video where he triesto destroy his first canoe he built. It takes a bit.Finally he resorts to a chain saw. I love his attention to detail.